fiderable number of people in the world at the death of Abel, though their father Adam was not then one hundred and thirty years old, and that the number of mankind before the deluge would easily amount to above one hundred thousand millions (even according to the Samaritan chronology); that is, to twenty times as many as our prefent earth has, in all probability, now upon it, or can well be fuppofed capable of maintaining in its present conftitutions. From whence it follows, that, to fuftain fo much large a number of inhabitants (befides the brute animals, which were, very probably, as numerous in proportion), the earth must have been much more fruitful before that defolation than it has been fince; though it was then barren, in comparison of its primitive fertility before the fall. One of the most extraordinary circumftances which occurs in the antediluvian history, is the vaft length of • Whifton's Theory, p. 246, &c. been much fhorter in the earlieft, and longer in the lateft times of the interval; which computation Mr. Whiston, to Ibid. p. 256. whom we are obliged for these of the longevity of the antediluvians. Caufes of it. human lives in those first ages, in comparison with our own. Few perfons now arrive to eighty or an hundred years, whereas, before the flood, they frequently lived to near a thousand; a difproportion almost incredible, though supported by the joint teftimonies of facred and prophane writers (B). Some, to reconcile the matter with probability, have imagined that the ages of those first men might poffibly be computed not by folar years, but months", an expedient which reduces the length of their lives rather to a fhorter period than our own. But for this there is not the leaft foundation; befides, the many abfurdities that would thence follow, fuch as their begetting children at about fix years of age, as fome of them in that cafe must have done, and the contraction of the whole interval, between the creation and the deluge, to confiderably lefs than two hundred years, even according to the larger computation of the Septuagint. The causes of this longevity are varioufly affigned: fome have imputed it to the fobriety of the antediluvians, and the fimplicity of their diet; alleging, that they eat no flesh (C), and had none of those provocations to gluttony, which wit and vice have fince invented. Temperance might, undoubtedly, have fome effect, but not poffibly to fuch a degree. There have been many temperate and abftemious perfons in latter ages, who yet feldom have exceeded the ufual period. Others have imputed that longevity to the excellency of their fruits, and fome peculiar virtue in the herbs and plants of thofe days; but as the earth was curfed immediately after the fall, its fruits, we may fuppofe, gradually decreased in their vir u Varro, apud Lactant. Inft. Divin, lib. ii. cap. 12. tin. de Civit. Dei, lib. xv. cap. 12, (B) Jofephus reckons up the teftimonies of Manetho, Berofus, Mochus, Heftiæus, Jerom the Egyptian, and the writers of the Phoenician antiquities. He fays alfo, that Hefiod, Hecatæus, Hellanicus, Acufilaus, Ephorus, and Nicolaus, wrote that the ancients lived a thousand years. Of all which teftimonies we have none now extant, except Vid. Auguf that of Hefiod, in Oper. & Dieb. ver. 130. (C) A learned physician has advanced a very contrary opinion. Among feveral caufes of the longevity of the first men, enumerated by him, one is, their eating of raw flesh; the most nourishing and beft parts whereof he fuppofes, are carried off in drefling by the action of the fire. Beverovi cius, Thef, Sanitate, lib. iii. tue tue and goodness till the flood; and yet we do not fee the length of men's lives decreased confiderably, if at all during that interval. Others have thought, that the long lives of thofe inhabitants of the old world proceeded from the ftrength of their ftamina, or first principles of their bodily conftitutions: which might, indeed, be a concurrent, but not the fole and adequate caufe of their longevity; for Shem, who was born before the deluge, and had all the virtue of the antediluvian conftitution, fell three hundred years fhort of the age of his forefathers, because the greatest part of his life was paffed after the flood. It has therefore been more rationally fuppofed, that the chief cause of this longevity was the wholesome conflitution of the antediluvian air, which, after the deluge, became corrupted and unwholefome, breaking, by degrees, the priftine crafis of the body, and shortening men's lives, in a very few ages, to near the prefent ftandard. But how the flood should induce or occafion fuch a change in the air, is not eafy to comprehend *. If no rain fell in fenfible round drops, to refract and reflect the rays of light, on which the rainbow entirely depends, the appearance of that beautiful phænomenon could not be expected; and, indeed, it is somewhat hard to conceive how it could be a fign or confirmation of the covenant which God made with Noah, that he would drown the world no more with water, if it had been in the clouds before, and with no regard to this promife. For if we fuppofe it even an arbitrary fign, and to have no connection with the effect, it feems that, to make it fignificant and fatisfactory, it must be fomething new, otherwise it could not fignify a new thing, or be the confirmation of a new promise. Whether any rain. bow before the flood. any flesh might be eaten be fore the flood. Whether flesh was permitted to be eaten before the Whether deluge, is also a queftion which has been much debated. By the permiffion exprefsly given to Noah for that purpofe, after the flood, and God's affigning vegetables only for food to man, as well as beaft, at the creation, one would imagine it was not lawful before; yet others have fuppofed, that it was included in the general grant of power and dominion given to Adam by God over the animal creation; and the distinction of beafts into clean and unclean, which was well known before the flood, is insisted on as a ftrong argument on this fide, and which it is not * Vid. Burnet's Theory. Whifton's Theory. Ray on the Deluge. eafy F 4 eafy to anfwer. To fay, that diftinction was used proleptically, is a mere fubterfuge; and to fuppofe it made folely to diftinguifh what was lawful or unlawful to be facrificed, and not what might or might not be eaten, is little better; it being the custom to offer to God such fruits and animals as were fit for food and fuftenance, and not fuch as were of no use or benefit to mankind in that respect. An Inquiry concerning the Situation of Mount Ararat, and the various Opinions about it. IT may be proper, before we clofe this chapter, to give fome account of the mountains of Ararat, whereon the ark refted, the fituation of which is ftill uncertain. The Sibylline verfes place Mount Ararat in the borders of Black Phrygia, near Celænæ, at the springs of the river Marfyas, which rifes out of the fame lake with the Mæander, and falls at length into that river. But ita ppears from good authorities that there is really no mountain at all in that place, at least none near fo high as Ararat must needs have been. This fancy, therefore, feems to have taken its rise from the furname Cibotos, or the ark, given to Apamæa, another city near Celænæ. This appellation, however, it did not receive, as Bochart obferves, from any tradition of Noah's ark, but from its fituation, fhut up like an ark or cheft, by three rivers; as the port of Alexandria in Egypt was called Cibotos, from the bay furrounding it: befides, Cibotos was a new name, which does not seem to have been known in those parts till given to Apamea, built by Seleucus. or Antiochus Soter; and Celænæ had a prior right to it, if there had been any fuch tradition; fo that what is farther alleged of the Apamean medals having on the reverse the impreffion of an ark, as may be seen on three feverally ftruck in honour of Adrian, Septimius Severus, and Philip the Arabian, is of no weight. Ben Gorion feems to extend the name of Ararat to Caucafus; but by the mountains of Ararat, both ancient and modern authors have generally understood those of Armenia. Arárat is by the Septuagint, and in the Vulgate, rendered Armenia (D); and there is actually a pro (D) The Samaritan verfion the name the eastern writers tranflates it Serendib, which is give to the ifland Ceylon. vince of that country named Ararat, or Airarat, from a plain therein, fo called in memory of Arai the eighth king of that nation, who was there flain in battle; Arai arat fignifying the flain of Arai. But though authors have generally agreed in placing Ararat in Armenia, yet they differ as to the particular situation of the mountain where the ark refted. There are two opinions concerning it, and each is supported by tradition, Mount A The firft opinion is, that it was one of the mountains Firft tradi which divide Armenia on the fouth from Mefopotamia, tion about and that part of Affyria inhabited by the Curds, from whom those mountains took the name of Curdue, or Cardu, by the Greeks turned into Gordyæi (E). It is called by the Arabs Al Judi, and alfo Thamanin. The tradition, which affirms the ark to have rested on these mountains, must have been very ancient, fince it is the tradition of the Chaldeans themselves: the Chaldee paraphrafts affent to this opinion, which obtained very much formerly; but when we come to enquire into the peculiar part of these mountains, whereon the ark refted, authors feem to place it out of Armenia; Epipha nius, in the country of the Cordyæans, or between the Armenians and Cordyæans, on the mountain Lubar; the eastern authors, as well Chriftians as Mahommedans, on Mount Thamanin, or Al Judi, which overlooks the country of Diyah Rabiah, in Mefopotamia, near the cities of Maufol, Forda, and Jazirat Ebn Omur, which laft is faid to be but four miles from the place where the ark rested ". rarat. of the ark to be seen for a long time on the Cardu To confirm this tradition we are told the remains of Remainder the ark were to be feen upon these mountains. Berofus and Abydenus both declare there was fuch a report in their time. The firft obferves farther, that several of the inhabitants in the neighbourhood scraped the pitch off the planks as a rarity, and carried it about them for an amulet; and the latter fays, they ufed the wood of the veffel as a remedy for many diseases, with wonderful fuccefs. The relics of the ark were to be feen alfo in the time of Epiphanius, if we may believe his affertion; and y Vide Eutych. Annal. p. 41. Bochart. Phaleg. lib. i. Onkelos & Jonathan in Genef. viii. Benj. Tudelens Itiner. p. 61. (E) The Greek and Latin writers name them Carduchi, Cardiei, Cordyæi, Cordueni, Gordi, Cordæi, Curdi, &c. Bochart fuppofes they are the we mountains, |